Wild Fires

[American Patriot]

Briefing on Waldo Canyon investigation set for Sept. 12

August 29, 2012 10:05 AM
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MATT STEINER
matt.steiner@gazette.com
A news conference focusing on the investigation into the Waldo Canyon fire will be held Sept. 12 in Colorado Springs, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service said.
Steve Segin, of the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center, said details of the briefing are being ironed out. Segin added that it will most likely be held at the Colorado Springs Police Operations Center on South Nevada Avenue at about noon.
The investigation into the cause of the 18,427-acre blaze that destroyed 346 homes and killed two people in Colorado Springs moved from the hills west of Colorado Springs to the laboratory in late July after an eight-agency team combed the spot where the fire began on June 23.
From soon after the fire started the indications have been that it was human caused. There was no lightning in the area around the time the fire was reported, and the Forest Service is quick to identify lightning as a cause, as it did with the High Park fire near Fort Collins.
On June 25, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office set up a tip line for people to call with information on the start of the fire. At a daily briefing a day later, the Forest Service urged anyone who was in Waldo Canyon or near Pyramid Mountain around the time the fire started to contact authorities.
The investigation has involved multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and Colorado Springs police homicide detectives.
Segin said a complete report on the investigation will likely not be revealed Sept. 12 as the investigation is ongoing.

[American Patriot]

Details Expected On Waldo Canyon Fire Cause

August 29, 2012 5:58 PM

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Diana Webb took this photo on June 26 when the Waldo Canyon Fire exploded.


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Colorado Springs, Waldo Canyon Fire, Wildfires

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) – Colorado’s most destructive wildfire was caused by a human, with more details expected next month.
Investigators have determined June’s Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs was caused by a human. Further details were to be released Sept. 12 at a briefing in Colorado Springs.
On June 23 the wildfire exploded and went on to destroy nearly 350 homes and kill two people. That day, on dispatch recordings, at least two firefighters said the fire apparently started in the area they had searched.

[American Patriot]

Posted: Wed 2:44 PM, Aug 29, 2012
A A
Reporter: KKTV

Updated: Wed 10:54 PM, Aug 29, 2012
Back to News

Cause Of Waldo Canyon Fire To Be Released In 2 Weeks



[IMG]http://media.graytvinc.com/images/300*187/nighttime+waldo+caynon+fire3.jpg[/IMG]


Waldo Canyon Fire Cause To Be Released In Two Weeks
Fire Cause Released In Two Weeks
11 News has learned that there will be a briefing about the Waldo Canyon Fire investigation on September 12th. The U.S. Forest Service tells 11 News they have found a cause, but are waiting to release it until "executive leadership can be briefed."
The news conference will be held at the Colorado Springs Police Operations Center in downtown.
One homeowner who lives in Mountain Shadows tells 11 News she is frustrated it's taking so long to release the cause.
"I'm very ready to know what happened," said Jan Roth. "I've wondered why we've had to wait so long."
Mayor Steve Bach tells 11 News he does not know what started the fire, and he probably won't find out before the news conference.
"Everything's frustrating with respect to that fire. We just need to be patient," said Mayor Bach.
As we've reported before, the fire was human caused, but we don't know if it was intentionally set or if it was accidental.
The fire destroyed nearly 350 homes in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood. Two people were killed.

[American Patriot]

TWO MORE WEEKS???? THEY KNOW THE CAUSE.... Fuck the government....

I'm marching on Town Hall tonight.

(damn, they aren't scheduled to be there.. mother fuckers)

[American Patriot]

Waldo Canyon Fire: Cause, Origin To Be Revealed In September; Forest Service Confirms Fire Was 'Human-Caused' (PHOTOS)

Posted: 08/31/2012 1:31 pm Updated: 08/31/2012 1:39 pm







Fire from the Waldo Canyon wildfire as it moved into subdivisions and destroyed homes in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Tuesday, June 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Gaylon Wampler)





On June 23, the Waldo Canyon Fire broke out northwest of Colorado Springs and became the most destructive wildfire in Colorado state history. Now more than two months later, the cause of that fire has yet to be revealed, but that will all change on Sept. 12.


A press conference has been scheduled in Colorado Springs to finally announce the findings of an investigation into the origin and cause of the Waldo Canyon Fire, The Denver Post reports.


Although exact details are still unknown, the fire's origin is believed to be on a ridge along the Waldo Canyon hiking trail west of Colorado Springs. The fire's cause was confirmed to be human-caused this week by the Forest Service -- a natural-cause from a lightning strike was deemed unlikely because the National Weather Service said that for June 23, the official date of origin of the fire, and for the day prior, the skies were clear and no thunderstorms were observed.


The confirmation of the fire being the result of human activity still leaves a lot of questions because a human-caused fire can be the result of anything from accident to negligence to arson.


The Waldo Canyon wildfire began burning on Saturday, June 23 and was declared officially contained about two and half weeks later on Tuesday, July 10. When the smoke cleared, the fire had forced the evacuation of more than 32,000 people, consumed 18,247 acres, destroyed 346 homes, left two people dead and was part of Colorado's worst wildfire season in a decade. As of July 17, the total costs of fighting the fire had risen to $16.6 millon, according to InciWeb.org. Since that date, approximately $25,000 a day has been spent on repair of the land adding up to around another $1 million to date.


The fire burned so hot that wildfire experts say that nearly 20 percent of the total 18,247 acres (29 square miles) consumed by the blaze was burned so severely that no living vegetation was left on the surface nor root systems left below the surface to a depth of about 4 inches, The Associated Press reported. About 3,375 acres (about 5 square miles) was determined to be damaged so badly, left so baren after the blaze ripped through the area that it was likened to that of a moonscape.

[American Patriot]

Waldo Canyon fire investigation results to be revealed Sept. 12

Posted: 08/30/2012 12:01:00 AM MDT
Updated: 08/30/2012 09:49:36 AM MDT

By Jeremy P. Meyer
The Denver Post
Alfredo Hernandez with First General Services cleans up the remains of the deck at Jack Ross' home, which was burned in the Waldo Canyon Fire. (Heather Rousseau, The Denver Post file)





The public will have to wait nearly two weeks to learn what investigators have concluded in their probe into the cause and origin of the Waldo Canyon fire.


A Sept. 12 press conference has been scheduled in Colorado Springs to reveal the information, said Steve Segin, spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center.


The 18,247-acre fire west of Colorado Springs was the most destructive in Colorado history, killing two people, and destroying nearly 350 homes valued at more than $110 million. It cost more than $16 million to fight.


The Forest Service this week is finishing its draft report on the cause and origin of the fire, said Segin, who could confirm only that the fire was human-caused.


The only other option would be a lightning-sparked fire, but there were no reports of lighting in the area on June 23, when the fire started off of a hiking trail in the Pike National Forest west of the city.


"It was not a natural-ignition fire," he said. "But human-caused could mean anything."


Federal and local investigators have been involved in the probe, including the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive, and Colorado Springs police and El Paso County Sheriff's Office. Colorado Springs Police homicide detective Sgt. Adrian Vasquez has been heading the local investigation, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette.


Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367, jpmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jpmeyerdpost

[American Patriot]

There were over 20 of these set in Teller County (a few miles up the road from where Waldo Canyon started).

Fires that hounded Teller and Park counties still unsolved

September 04, 2012 10:45 AM
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MATT STEINER
matt.steiner@gazette.com


For a week in late June, Teller County fire crews darted from blaze to blaze trying to put an end to a rash of suspected arsons.


More than two months later, officials still seek the culprit connected to the mystery of the 25 fires that fortunately, were all put out before a catastrophe occurred.


“You’re always hoping the person will step up and say, ‘Yeah, I did it,’” said Dennis Sherman, a Teller County Sheriff’s Office detective assigned to the case.


A task force was formed in late June made up of investigators from the U.S. Forest Service, Park and Douglas counties, the Woodland Park police, the State Patrol and federal agencies including the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.


The task force chased more than 150 leads after the chain of fires began on June 18. Five blazes that sparked on June 25 marked the end of a worrisome week in the county west of Colorado Springs.


Two of the June 25 incidents were in Teller County, and the other three were reported in Park County east of Lake George. Capt. Sven Bonnelycke, a spokesman for the Park County Sheriff’s office, said those three fires have also been linked to the rash of arsons.


Investigators have had very little physical evidence to follow, however. Sherman said there have been no traces of accelerants found at any of the 25 locations.


“It’s not saying that something wasn’t used,” he said. “We’re just not detecting anything being used.”


The detective noted that with extremely dry conditions, which dominated much of Colorado in June, an accelerant wouldn’t have been needed.


“The accelerants were on the ground,” Sherman said. “All they needed to do was to make a small pile of sticks or pine needles and light it.”


Sherman said the investigation has become extremely narrow. He said the task force has “very specific” people they are looking for, and it’s just a matter of whether they “can put the match in their hand.”


Teller County Sheriff Mike Ensminger said in early July that the methods used in all 25 cases have been the same. Sherman echoed that analysis on Tuesday, noting that all the blazes were sparked close to roadways, giving the arsonist a quick escape.


The proximity to highways also allowed first responders and the community to put out the fires quickly.


The Teller fires began just after the Springer fire was set near Lake George and ended just two days after the Waldo Canyon fire flared up in the mountains west of Colorado Springs.


Ever since late June, residents in all three counties have wondered whether Springer, Waldo Canyon and the Teller fires might be part of the same scheme.


Park County authorities did report that Springer was human-set, but Bonnelycke confirmed the Springer fire, which scorched about 1,145 acres in Eleven Mile Canyon, has not been linked to the other arsons.


The Waldo Canyon fire, which burned more than 18,000 acres, destroyed 346 homes and killed two people, has also been thought to be human-set. Officials investigating Waldo Canyon have been cautious, however, and won’t link the fire, the most destructive in Colorado history, to the series of Teller fires.


“I understand why people would navigate in that direction, given the timing and location,” El Paso County Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Jeff Kramer said on Tuesday. “There’s no information that we have at this point that suggests that it was connected to the Teller County arsons.”


Forest Service spokesman Steve Segin echoed Kramer, saying, “The draft of the report that’s going around didn’t even mention that.”


Sherman said he didn’t want to speak for other agencies, but insisted he wasn’t going to rule out anything when talking about the timing and location of the Waldo Canyon fire and the possibility that there might be a link.


“If it was 30 miles down the road, I’d say no,” Sherman said. “The bottom line is, once that fire got going, we had no more fires.”

—
Contact Matt Steiner at 636-0362 or follow him on Twitter @gazsteiner.

Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/put-...#ixzz25iw5x5SX

[American Patriot]

I was on vacation when they came out with the news to the public (they had released the cause two weeks prior to my departure to "community leaders" whoever they are, but NOT to the public).....

So, here's what I am finding today.

The city is LYING about this. The US Government is LYING about this. They aren't telling us everything they know (perhaps to let the bad guy think he is getting away)... but they KNOW who it was, how it was done and they know where he is at most likely. My bet is it was terrorism. Plain and simple.

$100,000 offered for information on who started Waldo Canyon Fire

Posted: 09/21/2012 12:01:00 AM MDT
Updated: 09/21/2012 12:15:34 AM MDT

By The Denver Post

An anonymous donor has offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the identification and, possibly, arrest of whoever caused this summer's Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs.


Investigators announced last week that they have determined the fire started within 3 miles of the Waldo Canyon trailhead off of U.S. 24, and it was human-caused.


However, they are not certain whether it was deliberately set or started accidentally. Consequently, El Paso County District Attorney Dan May said it's too soon to know whether charges will be filed against anyone.


Investigators are hoping someone will come forward with information that might help answer that question.

The reward will be overseen by Crime Stoppers.


The Colorado Springs Police Department asks anyone with information to call 719-385-2222. Callers will be required to leave a name and contact information, and an investigator will follow up.


The 18,247-acre fire killed two people and destroyed nearly 350 homes valued at more than $110 million. It cost more than $16 million to fight.


This reward is separate from a reward being offered for information about who burglarized the homes and vehicles of residents while they were evacuated from the fire's path.


Also on Thursday, The Gazette reported that two businesses that received a big financial hit because the fire closed U.S. 24 during the peak tourist season received a little help.


The Cellar Door, a gift shop in Woodland Park, along with Lakeside Cottages in Green Mountain Falls, each received a $2,000 check from the Pikes Peak Area Rotary Endowment.


It was the second round of checks from the endowment, a foundation formed by eight Colorado Springs-area Rotary clubs who are raising money from members and outside sources to award grants to businesses hurt by the fire.


Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach told KKTV, Channel 11 that "It's very frustrating, a little disheartening that we don't have answers," knowing how badly the victims want to "get to the bottom of this."



Read more: $100,000 offered for information on who started Waldo Canyon Fire - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_21...#ixzz27nP10RgE
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

[Malsua]

Hmm, well, if it was terrorism, one can expect to see some action after the election.

[American Patriot]

One can expect to see action IF it is a white guy in his 40s.

[American Patriot]

If this don't make people wonder why they are keeping this a secret, I don't know what will.... On a side note here, a second autopsy was performed (if I understand what they said) on the two deceased - the elderly couple who died up on the mountain when their house burned down around them... and they are "keeping the results" a secret. They won't release the results because "if the fire is found to be deliberate there will murder charges"....

I think this is bullshit. Charge it as it is, don't play games, tell the public what the HELL HAPPENED and WHO they believe set this fire!


Reward doubles for information

Posted: Thursday, October 4, 2012 11:35 am
Pat Hill phill@ourcoloradonews.com | 0 comments



The anonymous donor who put up $50,000 reward money for a possible arsonist in the Waldo Canyon Fire has doubled the ante to $100,000. “The money is for tips that are called in to the Colorado Springs Police Department Tipline,” said Kevin Holt, vice president of the Pikes Peak Area Crime Stoppers.


The information must lead to the arrest of an individual, or individuals, responsible for starting the fire, Holt said, adding that callers will have to reveal their names to collect the reward.




As of the end of September, officials had not specifically stated that the fire was caused by an arsonist; however, they did say the fire was human-caused.


“If people see anything out there, fire, theft or burglary, please call,” Holt said.


Last week, Berwick Electric in Colorado Springs announced a $5,000 reward for information regarding the fire. To collect this reward, callers can remain anonymous.


The Tipline number is 385-2222 and the 24/7 number for Crime Stoppers is 634-

STOP (7867). Holt's email address is holtassociates@earthlink.com.


In conjunction with the reward announcements, the parks' departments in Colorado Springs and El Paso County have posted announcements on the area's trailheads.

[American Patriot]

Well its fucking started again. Fire in Blackforest 6-7 miles away, plume up to 25000+ ft and extending 35 miles east north east. Unknown acres and active. Evacs ongoing w/6-8 homes already gone.
Fire south of us in NM. Unknown data. Castle Rock 35 miles north where my son is has a large fire burning. South of me a few miles is another fire.
Today was forecat to be hot, windy and dry. No fuckingdoubt in my mind this was deliberate.....

[American Patriot]

http://www.transasianaxis.com/album....achmentid=1141
Cant ost images from the galaxy. I uploaded a few will post them tomorrow

[American Patriot]

Well... There are five confirmed fires here.

Most of them appear from what I can gather from local news around 1200-1400 yesterday. One up north may have been "ignited by lightning" however when I looked back at radar I didn't see any clouds, no storms etc. I'm calling bullshit. (Unless it happened day before yesterday and they didn't see it).

Day before yesterday we had a few clouds and we had a fire on the Air Force Academy very near the edge of where the other fires stopped.

One fire prompted the evacuation of Territorial Prison with 800 inmates.

The Royal Gorge fire may have severely damaged the Royal Gorge Bridge. The fire certainly jumped the canyon and there has not yet been word of the extent of the damage.

Last night a contact called me, a close friend of the family, Iraqi vet, trained in explosives and blowing shit up. He stated he saw either a "Special forces op or some kind of special agency going up the freeway". When I asked what he meant he told me there was a loose convoy of a half dozen vehicles, military personnel in civies who had EOD equipment (he was texting me this stuff) and said he recognized all the equipment from Iraq.

Later when I spoke to him he said they were looking at every person on the freeway and appeared to be looking for something.

My thinking is they were looking for the perps. Black Forest isn't far off I-25, and for that matter NONE of the fires are. You can get there easily from I25 to any of them.

My thinking says this was deliberate, someone set some incendiary devices on timers.

Last year's fire was 1 year ago (in about 9 days or so) and was "man caused" according to local authorities. They have never caught the perpetrator.

[American Patriot]

Colorado Wildfire Forces Prison Evacuation


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By THOMAS PEIPERT Associated Press
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. June 12, 2013 (AP)






A wildfire forced the evacuation of more than 900 prisoners at a state prison southwest of Colorado Springs early Wednesday, one of four blazes across the Front Range that destroyed dozens of homes and forced thousands of people to flee.


Department of Corrections spokeswoman Adrienne Jacobson said prisoners from the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility were taken to other prisons around the Front Range overnight. The evacuation was ordered because of the danger from heavy smoke, she said. The fire has not reached the prison.


"This was done as a precaution because it takes a lot of time to move the prisoners," Jacobson said.


The medium- and low-risk prisoners were evacuated by bus, including 24 from an infirmary who were taken to a Denver facility to protect them from smoke, some in wheelchairs.


That fire was burning south of the Royal Gorge Bridge and it destroyed three structures near Canon City.


The Black Forest Fire in a heavily wooded residential area northeast of Colorado Springs burned 40 to 60 homes after it broke out Tuesday and prompted evacuations of about 2,300 homes, affecting about 6,400 people, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said late Tuesday.


At the Black Forest Fire, six helicopters and an air tanker were on the scene, Maketa said. The office of Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., said C-130 cargo planes were expected to be prepared to help fight the fire Wednesday.



California Wildfire Spreading Fast Watch Video



Thousands Flee as Winds Fuel Explosion in California Wildfires Watch Video



California, New Mexico Wildfires Force Evacuations Watch Video





The area is not far from last summer's devastating Waldo Canyon Fire that destroyed 346 homes and killed two.


"It's very, very reminiscent of what we experienced in Waldo Canyon," Maketa said.


However, there were no immediate reports of injuries in the fires.


All of the fires moved quickly Tuesday, driven by record temperatures and strong winds. The conditions were making it difficult to build containment lines around the fires, and sparks jumped across them.


"Weather is not working with us right now, but our guys are giving it a heck of a shot," Maketa said.


In southern Colorado, the Bureau of Land Management said three structures have been lost in a fire on about 6 square miles near the Royal Gorge Bridge. Authorities evacuated Royal Gorge Bridge & Park, home of the soaring suspension bridge spanning the canyon across the Arkansas River.


A third wildfire in southern Colorado erupted Tuesday in rural Huerfano County. The Klikus Fire had burned an estimated 45 to 50 acres west of La Veta, prompting evacuation orders for about 200 residences.


The causes of those fires weren't immediately confirmed.


A fourth wildfire sparked by lightning Monday in Rocky Mountain National Park quickly grew to an estimated 300 to 400 acres Tuesday. No structures were threatened.


In the Colorado Springs area, George Gonzales, 74, and his wife stayed in their motorhome in the parking lot of a Red Cross shelter set up for evacuees from the Black Forest Fire. He said the two were eating lunch in town when his daughter got an alert on her phone about the fire and called them.


An officer let them go home to retrieve their dogs, their motorhome and truck, and his heart medicine, George Gonzales said.


"Sure, we're worried, but we're hoping for the best," he said.


The Federal Emergency Management Agency has authorized federal funds to defray costs of fighting the Black Forest and Royal Gorge fires.


"There is nobody backing away and saying we're not going to attack this with everything that we've got," Gov. John Hickenlooper said late Tuesday.

[American Patriot]

Thousands flee as wildfires rip through Rockies

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By Cheryl K. Chumley


The Washington Times
Wednesday, June 12, 2013

• Enlarge Photo
  Dave Dunlap watches from the bed of his truck as a wildfire ... more >
• 
  

At least 3,600 people have been evacuated, as wildfires on Wednesday continued to rip through Colorado and parts of the Rockies, threatening to spread to at least three other states.


Sixty homes — including million-dollar mansions — have been destroyed so far, Fox News reported. Wind gusts are exacerbating the flames. The fire is sweeping across Colorado but has hit Texas, Arizona, California and Nevada, and residents there are starting to flee, Fox News said.


Not all the evacuations are going smoothly, CNN reported.


“We have some folks that were having difficulty,” said El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa, to CNN. “We are focused on our elderly population that may have difficulty moving, and people trying to move animals out. It has gone from an evac to somewhat of a search and rescue.”


The fire has spanned 400 acres, and forecasts — dry and windy — aren’t favorable. Firefighters in Colorado said on Wednesday it’s “zero percent contained,” USA Today reported.


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...#ixzz2W0MukhlV
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

[American Patriot]

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid...m&source=embed

Check the fires on the map.

There's two that should show right off.

Just zoom out and you can see the location of all five of them.

[American Patriot]

Blackforest Fire is at around 8000 acres as of last night. I haven't heard an update this morning yet.

[American Patriot]

Multiple fires force evacuation of thousands in Colorado

Louis Batides / Reuters
Large plumes of smoke from a wildfire burning in the Black Forest stretch the horizon threatening homes northeast of Colorado Springs on Tuesday.




By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC News


Wildfires fueled by hot, gusty winds were burning hundreds of acres and forcing evacuations Tuesday in three different parts of Colorado, a large part of which was under a red flag warning for extreme wildfire risk.


Fire agencies said their resources were being stretched critically thin as they tried to battle the fires simultaneously.


About 3,600 people had been evacuated from about 1,250 homes northeast of Colorado Springs after a smoky, fast-moving fire broke out at about 2 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) near Black Forest Regional Park, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office said. Residents of 300 more homes were asked to evacuate voluntarily.


No casualties were immediately reported, and Sheriff Terry Maketa said fewer than 10 homes were believed to have burned.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for southeastern Colorado until 11 p.m. ET because of "critical fire weather conditions" — 95 degrees and dry, with strong winds.


"As you can tell, weather is not working with us," Maketa said.


Neither were some residents. Maketa said some who'd ignored earlier evacuation orders were now calling asking for help.
"Some have changed their minds," he said.


The fire was moving rapidly, and authorities had no immediate estimate of how many acres it covered. Maketa said the county was trying to muster all the state and federal resources it could, but with two other major fires burning in Colorado, it wasn't clear when reinforcements might arrive.


Near Mesa Verde National Park, a fire jumped the Arkansas River near Cañon City and the historic Royal Gorge Bridge, spreading rapidly to cover about 3,000 acres by Tuesday evening. With containment pegged at 0 percent, about 200 people had already been evacuated, and about 800 more were being asked to leave.


Territorial State Prison in Cañon City was put on standby to evacuate its roughly 16,000 inmates if needed, authorities said.


Officials said the fire near Cañon City, Colo., could threaten the iconic Royal Gorge Bridge.



"It's certainly not out of the question that we'll be fighting this fire for another week," said Gregg Goodland, a Royal Gorge fire spokesman, who said an evacuation for Cañon City itself remained a possibility. "This fire is not going to go away any time soon, especially under the dry conditions."


A third fire, meanwhile, was burning in Rocky Mountain National Park after having been sparked by lightning Monday, NBC station KUSA of Denver reported. At least five trails in the park were closed by the fire, the size of which more than tripled, to 300 to 400 acres, in just a couple of hours Tuesday afternoon.


No structures were threatened in the park, the Forest Service said.


Parker Enix-Ross of NBC News contributed to this report.

[vector7]

Are terrorists targeting forests?

It’s why we need firefighting air force, state senator says

By Joe Hanel Herald staff writer
Article Last Updated: Friday, April 26, 2013 8:29pm



DENVER – As if 4 million acres of dead, standing timber and an ongoing drought weren’t enough to worry about as Colorado enters the wildfire season, a few Republican senators say it’s past time to prepare for terrorist attacks in the forests.

They’re making the argument to convince colleagues to pay for the state’s own fleet of aerial firefighting tankers. If terrorists ignited several fires at once, the small federal fleet would be overwhelmed, the state senators say.

Sen. Steve King, R-Grand Junction – the sponsor of the air tanker bill – said he is worried that large fires in the Colorado River Basin could clog reservoirs and cause a water supply “catastrophe” across the whole American Southwest.

“That is why that is a priority or could be a priority for those who wish us ill will, and those who would like to change the United States and the Western United States,” King said at a hearing for his bill.

Terrorist attacks in the forests have already happened, King’s allies said.

“We know for a fact that forest fires started in California were started by al-Qaida,” said Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, during debate in the Senate on Wednesday.

However, California fire officials say it never happened.

The idea that terrorists are targeting the forests has circulated on conservative online media since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But there’s more to it than conjecture.

Harvey got his information from William Scott, a Colorado Springs author and longtime journalist for Aviation Week & Space Technology. Scott is an expert on aerial firefighting, and he served on a 2002 blue-ribbon panel on air-tanker safety. He testified in a Senate hearing for King’s bill and said he is convinced that people with links to al-Qaida started fires in California in 2011.

In an interview, Scott said his sources were California law enforcement and a “longtime CalFire guy.” CalFire is the state’s firefighting agency.

“There’s a real reluctance in the government system to talk about this. It’s, I think, because they’re hoping against hope the terrorists won’t do it,” Scott said.

In spring 2012, al-Qaida’s English-language online magazine, Inspire, published an article called “It Is of Your Freedom to Ignite a Firebomb,” which featured instructions on how to build an incendiary bomb to light forests on fire. The article recommended Montana as a target.

CalFire Battalion Chief Julie Hutchinson said her agency has looked into terrorist threats against forests, including the Inspire article, and found nothing.

CalFire officials went so far as to follow the instructions to build the firebomb. They didn’t find it to be any more destructive than any other firestarting device that arsonists use, Hutchinson said.

“I am not aware of any fires that are caused by these devices or by al-Qaida,” Hutchinson said.

However, arson in the forests remains a serious threat, even without the specter of terrorists.

“Really, arson is arson, regardless of how it’s propagated,” Hutchinson said.

The idea of a “forest jihad” comes up every few years, from sources with varying degrees of credulity.

Last fall, Russia’s Federal Security Service, successor to the KGB, warned that terrorists were responsible for wildfires across Europe in 2012.

In June 2003, the FBI’s Denver office warned land-management agencies that a terrorist in custody had talked about plotting to set fires around the West, according to several media reports at the time.

Scott’s claim about the 2011 fires in California wasn’t the first about that state.

The website Before ItsNews.com wrote in 2003 that fires that year in California were set by terrorists. But on Friday, the website was featuring a story that said the Boston Marathon bombing was staged, along with a story headlined “Red Alert!!! Earthquake Triggered Nuclear Hellstorm Awaits America.”

For firefighters like CalFire’s Hutchinson, there’s enough danger in these drought years without looking for more enemies.

“We just tell everybody, it’s summer, it’s dry, the threat’s there,” Hutchinson said.

jhanel@durangoherald.com